This is a story of freedom. And why most of us don’t want it. Because we fear it. And everything it entails.
The Demon Army and the Scapegoat
Proper 7C | Luke 8:26-39
This is a story of freedom.
It is also a story of why most of us don’t want it.
Before the Story
Right before this moment, we have two earth-shattering stories.
The first is Jesus rejecting his mother and siblings. Saying to their faces that his disciples are his “true family.”
Then, when they cross over the sea, we see Jesus calm a storm, displaying unbelievable power that freaks out that “true family,” the disciples. They are afraid of his power.
Now they are on the other shore where they find a man, overfull of demons, breaking free of his shackles and living in a tomb.
The size of this story is humbling for us. What with those gross humilities we endure. Like people cutting in line. Or stepping on a Lego. I mean, while that is comparable to torment by demons. It isn’t comparable to torment by three thousand demons. So, a little perspective.
The Story Begins
This story has essentially five sets of characters: the man, the demons, the pigs, the townspeople, and Jesus.
And the man is being tormented by many demons. We don’t know how many, but we get a clue from the name the demons go by: Legion. A legion is a troop in the Roman army that amounts to three to six thousand soldiers.
For this story, the metaphor of an army of demons is essential. So we really are talking about one man’s torment and a town that fears a demon army. This is how he comes to be in a tomb, living in a cemetery. Chained up. Enslaved. Imprisoned. To protect the people of the town from an invading army.
The Demon Army
As Jesus approaches this poor, exhausted and tormented man, the demon army recognizes Jesus. I know you know this, but it bears repeating. The only characters in the gospels that truly get Jesus are the demons. They know what he is made of. And what he is capable of. It is only people that are surprised.
And this demon army know that they are no match for this one, single being standing before them. Even as they would torment a whole town if given the chance, they cannot bear the thought of being obliterated by Jesus. So they beg.
Now this is where the story gets curious. And I’m not entirely sure I fully comprehend what it means.
The demons beg Jesus to not send them into the abyss. The sea is an abyss. Demons fear the sea as the place of their eternal demise.
So I am not sure who or what is responsible for their going into the pigs who run off the cliff and fall into the abyss. Does Jesus drive them despite their begging? Do they think they’ll be saved by jumping into the pigs, but it is the pigs who take them into the abyss? Or is the abyss now a preferable destination when they go on their own accord to being sent there? I don’t know. It’s where they end up.
The Following
Now, freed from the torment of an entire legion of the demon army, the man is obviously grateful. I feel like grateful is an understatement. He has been a POW for a really long time.
He is naked.
His body is ravaged.
There may not even be a home to go to.
But Jesus has saved his life. And nothing compares to that. Absolutely nothing. He owes his life to Jesus.
And compared with the many who are following Jesus, none comes anywhere close to the level of life debt that this man owes Jesus.
As for conviction, I doubt any of these guys would hold a candle to this guy! Peter? You’ve got to be kidding. James and John? Those guys…well, we’ll see about them soon enough.
This guy would be the ultimate disciple.
But Jesus tells him to go home instead. His work is there.
The Twist
In a story full of massive spiritual warfare and incredible conviction, what might be the most compelling part is not spiritual at all. And has little to do with the demons, the pigs, or any of the real excitement in the story.
It is how the townsfolk respond to see the man who had been tormented by demons. Who had been naked, stripped of humanity and love.
Here he is, “clothed and in his right mind.” Normal. He looks normal. Himself again. Restored to humanity.
They see his normalcy and they freak out.
Their inexplicable response is to drive Jesus out of there. His sorcery is terrifying to them.
The townsfolk fear this freedom.
I’m not sure we truly appreciate how irrational this response is. And, at the same time, how predictable it is.
We expect that people who have lived for months or even years in constant fear of a demon army coming and ravaging their community would be relieved to see the threat removed. We expect they will show gratitude. Their fear is comprehensible.
When the things that torment us disappear, we get excited to go back about our business. In 2008, when the economy collapsed after bankers exploited the market to use as their own rigged casino to steal the equity of millions of Americans, we freaked out. But when the economy rebounded we all went Meh, we can buy stuff again.
But what Jesus has done for these people is something way more freaky.
He returned the scapegoat.
We know that some ancient cultures practiced a community ritual of literally placing their burdens on a goat and sending it out into the wilderness to die. This allowed people to get the metaphorical monkeys off of their backs and bury the proverbial hatchets between them. The scapegoat saved them in its dying. Out there. Somewhere.
This man was their scapegoat. He was their sacrifice. Keeping those demon armies inside of him prevented their being inside them or their children. Chaining him up, enslaving him, imprisoning him was their protection. He was their human sacrifice to protect the village.
Now the threat is gone.
And the human they sacrificed remains.
The man who was tormented is tormented no longer. He is clothed again. Restored. Fully alive and ready to thrive again.
This terrifies them. Perhaps more than the demon armies.
Their freedom required no sacrifice in the end. No death for one of their own.
But now they are face-to-face with their own choices. And fears.
And this one who freed them all from a demon army? He must be terrifyingly powerful.
Jesus offers restoration.
This is what confounds the people. Of course they want things back the way they were. And yet they also can’t actually be. Because the way they were was before they kicked the man out and chained him up.
There is no back. No returning. That ship has sailed.
Meanwhile, they have adapted. The army is always “out there”. They are protected when the scapegoat is named and isolated. Their own neighbor is an easily isolatable enemy.
And Jesus has stolen this from them. Stolen their easy comfort.
Which brings the burdens back. The burdens the scapegoat is supposed to remove (but we all know never really goes away).
The truth is that their fear of the demon army made them into something evil. And they don’t want to admit it.
This is what we do with fear, afterall. Use it to justify our own grotesque impulses and reactionary choices. How we justify torture even when we know it won’t work. How we make it righteous.
Jesus sends the man home. For them.
This may be the most potent reality of this story. While the man who Jesus freed from the demon army would make a perfect disciple, Jesus doesn’t bring him along to learn with them. He sends him back home as a witness to the glory of God. To a people who need him.
And I suspect this may be way more important than anything the disciples will do later on. Because his story and their story are intertwined.
We fear freedom.
Because we want the world to be this predictable. We actually want to fear enemies. And make enemies of our neighbors. To blame them for our misfortune. So we create scapegoats to unload our burdens and cast them out rather than get right with our neighbors.
Or deal with change.
Or perhaps learn that the world isn’t exactly the way we think it is.
We understand a world in which “the other” is an enemy rather than a neighbor.
Jesus frees us, expanding our sense of the world. But he also shrinks it, so that all of these other people are neighbors.
And this could scare us. If we allow those ancient practices to manifest in us.
Or we can follow Jesus. Who frees the scapegoat. And returns him to us. As a blessing. Redemption. Proof that the world is better than the one we fear it is.
That we too may be freed. Liberated. And able to thrive again.